They’ve begun a whole package of bridge rebuilds this spring, including over the Lynn Fells Pkwy. In Melrose they’ve cut some big trees and placed Jersey barriers to narrow the road and set up abutment work. Did they negotiate a place to build & stage the replacement bridge?
I am still under the impression that the money they are getting is to cover for last year (and so far this year's) losses. Ridership is still going to be low during the summer I think.
They're busy pretending that low-riderships will be permanent. Baker wants to cripple the T.
I don't get it. What would be his motivation for wanting to cripple public transit and weakening Massachusett's competitive position in the 21st century economy?
But you're not going to get 100% either any time soon. They might be legitimately be thinking that the medium term upside is 80%, if you are talking subway. There's a helluva lot of people unemployed right now in MA if you include PUA, and you can't really blame the shutdown for that since most things are open. It's not a short term thing. Business travel is going to be muted for some time, they might think there might be people who will stay WFH (albeit less than the CR crowd)
Moar privatization.
That's great, but IF he does not intend to dive headfirst into an empty concrete pool, exactly who are these private companies he has lined up?
That's...apt...analogy for about how interested Pioneer et al. are at solving actual problems vs. killing some trees pumping out eggheaded whitepapers. It's it's own form of grift.
Lynch isn't the only member from the MA delegation to D.C. who has been roasting the state govt and T leaders. The Biden admin also has weighed in, saying that the intent of the financial aid is specifically to avoid service and job cuts.
That shoulda been your approach in the first place, bro.
Do you have a source on that part?
From the same article:
Kind of makes the money useless since it doesn't really address the problem of what to do long term since the MBTA isn't getting 100% ridership any time soon. Going to have to do something if they backtrack - ask for more money from the State, raise fares, etc.
Not really. The law requires that the $ is earmarked only for daily operations *if* state agencies lay off workers. It's a provision to maintain the workforce.
I don't think we're looking at as long a time table as many expect. They mention in the podcast I posted avove that highway traffic volume is already about where is was pre-pandemic. With mass vaccination, offices returning much (though not all, but disproportionately staff that would have been riders and not drivers) of their staff and increasing congestion do we really expect it to take past the end of the year for most riders to return?
massdot.app.box.com